I have an MP3CD-playing stereo in my car – a Jensen MP3310. I got it for ~$125 2 or 3 years ago. I have been using my MP3 CDs in it, but with the advent of podcasting, I have been using my Lexar USB drive with a Lexar Jumpgear and the car stereo’s AUX input to play podcasts off my USB drive. Makes it easy to just delete them after I listen to them.
Today, I saw Best Buy had on sale an MP3CD-playing stereo that also has a USB jack on the front to play MP3s off of USB drives (and it has an AUX input)! I have been saying that somebody should do this for years and now they finally did. So I went to Best Buy to check it out and took a bunch of MP3 CDs and my USB drive filled with MP3s. It played all of them flawlessly except the latest episode of The Bitterest Pill which is at 22Khz frequency – it played that too fast. EVERYTHING else it played perfectly. So I bought it. Price was $99 on sale. Here’s the Best Buy page on it.
I’ll be installing it myself next weekend – too busy this week to do it. It comes with “free installation” but they charge you $25 for the wiring harness and labor. It’s not worth $25 to let them do it. I’ll do it myself.
I’ll post my thoughts and a review once I have installed it and played with it a bit. It’s an “Insignia™ 40W x 4 CD Deck with CD-R/RW/MP3/WMA Playback and Wireless Remote Model: IN-MP101”.
Also, I should be able to use it to play MP3s off of memory cards like SD cards by using my USB card reader. I’ll have to test that out too once it’s installed.
UPDATE: Full review has been posted.
Thanks for the honest review. Just to clarify, does the USB drive play tracks off your USB external hard drive? Or does it only work with a USB jump drive?
Also, what is the quality like? I’m leary of moving away from a name I’m familiar with (like Sony and Pioneer).
Thanks
As far as I know it will play MP3s off of any USB device – thumbdrive or even external HD. I read someone else saying that the USB port was powered so it should be able to use a USB HD. All I have are a USB flash drive and a USB card reader so that’s all I’ll be able to test. Oh – I also have a few USB MP3 players – I should be able to try those too. As for quality, I’l llet you know once it’s installed and I can play with it – full review to come.
Brian
Brian, thanks for the review. Recently, I’ve done a couple of road trips and I’ve been able to plug in an FM transmitter into my iPod and play all of my MP3’s wirelessly through my car radio. Transmitter is about $30 (and alot less hassle). Now I listen to your podcast in the car (wirelessly from my iPod) on the way to work. Keep up the good work.
I have one of those transmitters too and haven’t had much luck with them. Almost every FM frequency is taken so it’s hard to find one that works and when I do, it fades in and out a lot. Not a good solution for me. I’m glad it works for you though :)
Brian
That’ll teach me to always encode to 22.050! (I realized my error shortly after the initial upload and re-encoded. You’re fast on the “Check Subscriptions” button, man!)
I think this is great news for podcasting. I’ve been dreaming of a wireless podcatcher built into a car radio, but this sounds like a nice solution for now. FM transmitters don’t work for me either. I use a cassette adapter, which stinks. You really need something hardwired like the USB. Nice catch, Brian.
I must say the Radio and the USB flash memory-MP3 sounds very well for the money. However the CD and CD-MP3 audio quaity is poor. Too much noise in general. When you play the first track on the CD or CD-MP3 is not too bad; something most can live with. The noise become very noticeable half way on the CD and become worst on the last few tracks. The rumbo start after the first 10 to 15 second into each track.
If you like classical this is not for you.1 I tried two units and both behaved the same. I returned it.
RESPONSE: I burned a new MP3 CD recently and had hte same problem with it as you did. It worked at first then it got gradually worse and worse, like it was having a hard time reading it. I put in a different MP3 CD (same brand) that I burned (differently) a long time ago and it worked fine. So, I think it has something to do with the way hte CD was burned. I’ll have ot investigate this. The new CD was burned at work wit ha different program – I wonder if it was burned in a different format (Joliet, ISO9660) that the player says it can read, but it really has problems with? More to come on this – Brian
Hmmm…I haven’t noticed this, though I haven’t really put the CD through its paces yet. I’ll start playing some CDs and see if my experiences match up with yours.
Brian
Well, just came back from Best Buy where I returned my $99 MP3 USB Insignia. It actually served the purpose quality wise, only had problems ejecting CDs and switching to USB aux. Anyhow, googling around told me to look for something else as I am not the only one who experienced that problem. Just wanted to share that with others and congratulations that you are one of the few lucky people that don’t have problems with that car radio. Darn, why can’t well-known brands sell USB radios ;(
At elast you guys were able to install your Insignia. I purchased mine form Best Buy for $120 plus a free 256 MB flash drive (and a 4 year warranty for $30) and I tried to install it but of course it didn’t work. Insignia poorly designed this deck because in order to install it you really have no choice but to hardwire it, which means cutting your factory wires or buying a harness and chopping off htose wires. Most car decks require a simple harness that plugs into the back of the deck, not wires sticking out of it that won’t fit into the $20 harness you bought from Circuit City after one moron messed up your car trying to install it. Unless you are complete geek and don’t mind buying an off-brand product that Best Buy employees don’t even recommend, don’t buy this deck!
(I got my money back at best buy and got to keep the flash drive for free though).
Gow ith Alpine or Pioneer guys and gals. Great sound, easy install, won’t break in a week. (But buy the warranty anyway).
On another note, has anyone seen another deck with a USB port on it? Or does anyone know how to wire a USB port to a deck?
RESPONSE: The wiring on it was the same as every other stereo I have installed. You get a wiring harness/adapter and wire it up. Not sure what you mean. –Brian
I have a problem with my car radio vrcd-usb630s.
When I increase the volume in 20 units the car radio is turn off alone.
somebody help me.
Hi,
I just bought an Avant CD-200, which is a 4x40W FM/MP3/WMA/USB car stereo.
I have successfully tested it with several different USB memory sticks, ranging from 64MB to 2GB.
But when it comes to MP3 Players, neither of:
EUROLINE MP1300 1GB
LOGIK LOG3502 1GB
IAUDIO U2 512MB
Creative Zen Nano Plus 512MB
Sony NW-E003 1GB
worked with it.
Actually, the only player I managed to borrow that worked was an iPod Shuffle 512MB.
Does anybody know what differs the iPod from the bunch that didn’t work?
Ajo
RESPONSE: Do the others that didn’t work show up as drives in Windows or do you have to use special software to out songs on them? I’m pretty sure most, if not all, car stereos with a USB port will require the USB drives to be Windows compatible with no drivers required. For the others you could use the AUX input if the stereo has it (the Insignia does). The Insignia manual says:
• The main unit can only support the standard USB-memory disc which is approved by Microsoft.
• USB MP3 player is not a standard which means different brand name or different models have their own standard. So our product cannot support every MP3 player.
• When connecting an MP3 player and there has normal battery in the player (non rechargeable battery), you should remove the battery from the MP3 player then connect it to the USB interface. Otherwise, it may cause battery burst.
• When in USB play mode, be sure not to remove the USB driver from the USB interface.
–Brian
Hey, nice write up. I just purchased one via ebay and had a quick question. Do the speaker/power wires coming from the back pull out via a plug or are they hardwired to the unit with the plug on a pigtail? Thanks
RESPONSE: I don’t remember – try downloading the manual
–Brian
I have purchased the NS-C5111, It’s the next version of one you reviewed. It seems to have the same pros and cons. Except it has an SD card reader. I also purchased an external Western Digital Passport USB hard drive. It’s a 120GB, powered from the USB. At first it didn’t work. So I researched, and found that the max was 1GB. I made sure to only format this into Fat32. That worked. So I formatted it to 2GB that worked, so I formatted it to 4GB. That worked, so I formatted it to 16GB. That worked, so I formatted it to 78GB. That didn’t work. So I formatted it to 32GB. That did work. Lastly I formatted it to 70GB, and it worked with a small amount of music. Make sure to use the FAT32 file system. Also note, Windows XP/2000 can not format beyond 32GB partitions. XP can read up to 2TB of data off FAT32, just not make it for some reason. I had to use a program called FAT32FORMAT. It’s free and great! Now I am copying all my music, 68GBs to it. I will see if it can read all that. At first I was thinking it couldn’t read the drive because it was too large. But now I am thinking there is some file in there or something else that is causing nothing to happen when I plug it in. I have noticed the larger I make the partition, the longer it takes to read the table of contents. Over all I am very satisfied with this device. Before I have used a real desktop computer isntalled in my cars to offer massive mp3 storage. But this is too easy to go back .
Well I got the Insignia to read my entire MP3 collection. All 70GB. It took about 4 minutes to start playback when I plugged in the hard drive into the Insignia. I am now streamlining the mp3s and dir structures to minimize load time.
Hey, I’m having a serious problem with my USB drive on my Insigniaâ„¢ 40W x 4 CD Deck. I plug my USB cord into the jack and the other end into my Sliver (Cell Phone) I have plenty of songs on my phone and I can listen to them normally off the phone but I want to be able to play them in my car when I’m driving also. Anyway I plug everything in and my phone just says Do Not Disconnect. I’m not sure if it’s and ITunes thing or whatnot. The CD/MP3 Face reads USB in the car but nothing works. The phone wont switch off of Do Not Disconnect. HELP!!!!
I have one of these and I love it. I use it with my SD memory all the time. Question anyone ever gotten it to work with mp3 players theme selves not just the ipod? I had a Car neo for ages but the hard drive died and I’m having a hard time getting a half height drive to replace it so I was considering getting some other mp3 solution for in car use. (Any tried the zune with this?)
Thanks,
–Eric
Hi there, I bought a Kenwood KDC-W6537U with an USB connector on the rear end of the device. Here is some information that might prove helpfull when considering if USB is the thing for you. From what I’ve seen (and I’ve done quite a bit of research on the subject) the USB bus never gives more then 500mA, it only reads FAT16/32 formatted drives and is only able to read MSC (Mass Storage Class) devices, these MSC devices can use different protocols like UMS (USB Mass Storage) or MTP, those both work. I’ve tested several USB mp3 players and in general you can say that if they are plug and play in your OS (Operating System, ie: Windows XP) they will work on your car stereo. If they need to be turned on before they are recognized then they will only work when turned while connected to your car stereo, this option I personally find unpractical since you have to switch batteries of your mp3player once in a while and you need to turn it on before it will play music. If your mp3player isn’t a MSC device then connecting it to your car stereo is out of the question. Now for external USB harddrives, those will only work if they need less then 500mA for the spin up. The problem with this is, hard drive manufacturers often don’t publish power requirements for their products. I figured out that the Western Digital Passport (60gb) is working quite fine on my Kenwood. I first bought the 120gb variant, assuming it was exactly the same as the 60gb but with 2 platters instead of one and thus having nearly the same power requirements but I was proven wrong. I hope this information was helpful, a summary of information for your convenience:
Car Stereo USB Specs&Info (applies to most car stereo’s with USB functionality)
– maximum of 500mA output power on USB bus (if powered)
– capable of reading FAT16 and FAT32 filesystems
– WMA and MP3 playback (may differ per model)
– only reading mass storage devices that don’t require drivers
Regards, Joost Doomernik
Mine Pioneer DH3950 got a AUX unit.Can i play fit a USB drive/USB Porta HDD to that. and play music.
Hello,
Unfortunately, my MP3CD-playing stereo doesn’t have a USB jack. My MP3 player connects through the AUX port using the 2-right angle cable. Is there an aux cable that I can buy which will accept USBs?
Please help…MNS
Hey all,
If you are having problems getting you USB ext HDD to work with you car sterero it’s probably because of the power limitiation of the headset. (As mentioned by Joost). But don’t dispare there as a great new solution available now on Ebay from Bluebox Products. It simple to wire in – just connects in line with you USB link and allows you to use the Standard Ext USB HDD with just a USB port connection.
Now you can have all your music in you car for flash cards!!!!
Enjoy….
hey i have got a usb car stereo and i have tryed to plug in my usb wth songs on it and it says error12.the brand of da stereo is foryou.can someone plz help me out i am getting mad.